Olympics

[Isabeau]

Well, if you’re wondering if you should watch the opening ceremonies, Andrew Tate hated them, so yeah, they were great.

https://x.com/Cobratate/status/1816962599969271863

https://x.com/Cobratate/status/1816923863432785937

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

For those who missed Céline Dion's finish at the end of the Opening Ceremonies:

Link to video

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Another one of the performances, heavy metal band Gojira playing what people are saying is an as-yet unreleased song at the Conciergerie:


At the beginning, Marie Antoinette('s head) sings, "It will be fine, the aristocrats to the streetlamps; it will be fine, the aristocrats we'll hang them".

The Conciergerie, now a museum, was formerly a courthouse and prison. Marie Antoinette was actually held there, before her execution.

 

[mikka]

I was so worried shite was going to happen but I watched and it was - lovely- . As for "l'Hymne à l'amour" was tears in eyes time. Well the little sparrow as She wanes. Marvelous.
Also Lady G did a blinder but whoever choreo'd that CanCan should be sent to Mars

oh ETA a link that works as Dakota one not available

 

[Isabeau]

Yeah, that cancan was a miss.

I hope having the openings outside a stadium, with a tour of the host city, becomes a trend. It rained, but it didn’t seem to affect anything. Imagine if there had been a real storm, though. They really took a risk.

Céline singing l’Hymne à l’amour was touching and a perfect end. The statues of important women from the past rising up was great, this being the first olympics with gender parity among the athletes. Philippe Katerine singing Nu (the blue naked guy) ha ha. I also laughed at the beginning sequence with Jamel Debbouze and Zidane.

I enjoyed the whole thing.

 

[Free]

At the Olympics, AI is watching you

New system foreshadows a future where there are too many CCTV cameras for humans to physically watch.

arstechnica.com

 

[detrius]

I hope having the openings outside a stadium, with a tour of the host city, becomes a trend. It rained, but it didn’t seem to affect anything. Imagine if there had been a real storm, though. They really took a risk.

The pictures of Paris easily drowned out the rain.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Paris in the rain is a mood anyways.

But I think the rain actually made the laser show at the Tower at the end even better.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

AUSTRALIA in the lead after Day 1, with golds in women's 400m freestyle swimming AND the women's 4x100m relay (and silvers in both on the men's side), AND a gold for women's time-trial cycling.

USA has a swimming gold for men's 4x100m relay, and France's men's team has won in rugby!

 

[Free]

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Australia's Jessica Fox wins gold in kayak slalom. Defending medalist Ricarda Funk from Germany had a shot at winning, or at least the podium, time-wise but she really bad touch that ended up being scored as a missed gate, which is a 50-second penalty and sent her practically to the bottom of the field. She was the last run too, so her mistake was dramatic and immediately decided the podium. Klaudia Zwolinska (Poland) and Kimberly Woods (GRB) got silver and bronze.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I can’t believe the treatment a convicted rapist is getting at the Olympics

Dutch volleyball player Steven van de Velde raped a 12-year-old girl 10 years ago. The lack of outrage at Paris 2024 is jaw-dropping

liveapp.inews.co.uk

 

[Free]

I can’t believe the treatment a convicted rapist is getting at the Olympics

Dutch volleyball player Steven van de Velde raped a 12-year-old girl 10 years ago. The lack of outrage at Paris 2024 is jaw-dropping

liveapp.inews.co.uk

Oh, I can believe it.

 

[Free]

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Here's my spicy hot personal takes on all the Olympic summer events. Disclaimer is I utterly respect all of the athletes in all the events who compete at this level (unless they're dicks), because my opinions aside every one of these things is extremely difficult in its way.

In alphabetical order as name on the official IOC website (or app, since the official website is unbearably slow):

Archery - My fave Olympic event, because I was into archery when I was younger - sadly dissuaded over time, long story. Love watching it, though!

Artistic Gymnastics - One of the OG summer events. Several interesting sub-disciplines. This sport really makes me appreciate the beauty of the human figure and its movement, both male and female (I say that in an artistic sense, not a pervy sense).

Artistic Swimming - Kind of the figure-skating of the summer games. It's nice, I guess? Choreography is always a treat. But honestly, if I'm ever watching it it's probably because I'm over at my mom's house and she's watching it. It also falls into the general problem that I have with subjectively-scored events.

Athletics - Or what NBC calls "Track and Field". This is THE OG Olympic thing. When I think of the Olympics, these are the first images in my brain. Lots of diverse sub-disciplines! I don't follow any of them in a fan way, but if none of my actual favorite events is playing I usually default to these and I find all of them enjoyable to watch.

Badminton - It's polite tennis, if you don't count the name of the projectile.

Basketball - Meh. I would enjoy this a lot more if it wasn't NBA professionals. But as it stands now, I don't really care.

Basketball 3x3 - Better than the above, but still mostly the same problem.

Beach Volleyball - I understand why this is a thing; I'm not sure why it's an OLYMPIC thing. Also as a dude obviously I love seeing women in swimsuits, but this kind of feels a little like just an excuse to put them in the Olympics and I've never been sure how to feel about that.

Boxing - It's people beating on each other - meh. I might appreciate it better if I knew more exactly how scoring worked, because as it stands it feels so arbitrary to me, so it's tentatively in the "subjective scoring" stack for me.

Breaking - it's new, and it's fun to watch for sure. I will probably enjoy it for the novelty. But, BIG time Subjective Scoring Problem. Maybe this should be a one-time event.

Canoe Slalom - My second favorite event of them all. It's so unlike anything else, and it's so obscure for an international sport that I never get to see it outside of the Olympics really - maybe that's why it's one of my faves? There's a new sub-discipline this year called kayak cross, it's like BATTLE SLALOM and I can't wait to watch it, it looks epic. Like just watch this, how is that not the most fun thing you've ever seen?

Canoe Sprint - A more straightforward flat water race. I prefer the canoe singles but the kayak doubles, just because of how they look. I don't think canoe/kayak sprint is an OG modern Olympic event, but it FEELS like one.

Cycling BMX Freestyle - Okay. It's a bike in a skate park. It looks hella fun to do, but it's not as impressive to watch IMO compared to like the pipe or big air, which aren't Olympic events.

Cycling BMX Racing - It's a racetrack with bumps and hops, a bit more exciting to watch than freestyle for me.

Cycling Mountain Bike - Legit. This is the mountain bike course for the Paris games, and it looks all hum-drum while the cammer is making his way up to the top but once he gets there and starts heading down again it gets insane.

Cycling Road - I like catching parts of the Tour de France, once a year, but the Tour de France literally just ended so...pass.

Cycling Track - This doesn't appeal to me as much as the more chaotic BMX and mountain biking races, but it's fine I guess.

Diving - OG event. It's a bit slow but it can be quite impressive.

Equestrian - Meh. I like horses and all, but I only watch these if they're the only thing on honestly. I've heard it said that you have to at least come from comfortable means to make it as ANY kind of Olympic athlete and that may or may not be true, but equestrian events definitely feel shoehorned in so that some extremely rich people could get Olympic medals. That's probably super unfair of me, but it's the feeling I get. Maybe it's the uniforms. I like that the horses are named along with the riders, though.

Fencing - Too chaotic. It's hard for me as a viewer to see exactly what gets hit and when. The events are electronically scored and yet the machines still make "mistakes", somehow, and some of the fencers whinge about every freaking point - I'll just watch the highlights thanks.

Football - Soccer to us on this side. I enjoy watching it but I usually don't watch Olympic soccer very closely because it's definitely something I can watch practically any other time of any year.

Golf - I like to play, don't like to watch, the golfers are pros so same problem as basketball, and it happens all year round all over the world so same problem as football.

Handball - It's soccer but with a tiny ball that you throw around instead of kick.

Hockey - "Field" hockey over here. It's handball but with sticks.

Judo - It's wrestling but with way better uniforms and sometimes shoulder-throws. Not bad.

Marathon Swimming - No disrespect but it's kind of boring unless you're personally invested for some reason, like you know someone who does it.

Modern Pentathlon - Consists of five sub-disciplines,: air pistol, epee' fencing, show jumping (on an unfamiliar horse), a 200m swim, and a run. But each athlete must do all five, proving they are the very model of a modern major-general. I like the eclectic mix of events, although the choices do seem a little old-fashioned so the name is kind of a lie. I wonder what the original pentathlon was; I'll have to look that up sometime.

Rhythmic Gymnastics - It's interpretive dancing. It's okay I guess. Subjective Scoring problem.

Rowing - like Canoe/kayak sprint but backwards. I'll watch it.

Rugby Sevens - Soccer but like all the rules are different. I think they changed them because someone hugged the ball way too hard.

Sailing - I don't know how this manages to look so super intense and exciting in extreme close up shots but cannot look anything other than posh and leisurely from any kind of distance POV. I'll watch it if nothing else is going on in the water.

Shooting - It's okay. I like that the pistols and rifles are air-powered. Trap and skeet, meh.

Skateboarding - It's more fun to watch skateboards in the park than BMX. Street is interesting I guess. But again, Olympic skateboarding leaves out the coolest skate events, which is so weird considering that snowboard half-pipe AND big air are both winter Olympic events! What freaking gives???

Sport Climbing - deceptively entertaining, especially the bouldering & lead events.

Surfing - This year's surfing events are being held in Tahiti. Gorgeous backdrop. Intermittently fun to watch. Wish I understood the scoring better, seems subjective.

Swimming - OG event. The other THE OG event. But there's just way too many separate events, considering that any given swimmer can attempt and medal in as many of them as they want even within a single Olympics. Athletics has lots of runs yeah but you have distance runners and sprint runners and these are not the same runners. But distance swimmers and sprint swimmers can be and often are the same swimmer. And separate events for like particular swimming strokes? And a number of distances for each kind of stroke? Come on. It's way too much.

Table Tennis - lol

Taekwondo - It's boxing but with your feet, which makes it more entertaining. Scoring is way more straightforward IMO too.

Tennis - Like football and golf, it's all pros and I can watch this literally any time I want, so not really interested.

Trampoline - It looks fun, and the tricks are neat when they're pulled off well, but again I'm not quite sure why it's an OLYMPIC thing. Almost feels like it should be a sub-discipline under Artistic Gymnastics maybe?

Triathlon - Heck yeah, I love this hellsport. 1.5km swim, 40km road bike, 10km run, all in a row without any breaks. I can't believe this wasn't in the Olympics until 2000. Tokyo added a mixed-team relay version which was so awesome and I'm glad it's back this year. Triathlon is my third-favorite event of all of them.

Volleyball - It's tennis but with all your friends and a bigger ball. And no rackets. Also a higher net. A big team working together in a small space - it's not bad.

Water Polo - It's handball but in a swimming pool.

Weightlifting - Visually impressive, but somehow not enjoyable. Like, I'm amazed at what they're doing but also repulsed at how clearly they're punishing their bodies in order to do it. I'll watch the highlights.

Wrestling - I think(?) it's an OG Olympic event, buuuuut I can't get over the uniforms. They're silly, and not even in an endearing way. Like - hundreds of years ago when the Olympics decided to start wearing clothes, they could've gone with literally anything, and they went with this. And stuck with it. I could never, ever win at wrestling no matter how strong or fit I was, because I could never take someone who looks like that seriously enough to get my head into it, so I would be beaten just immediately. Maybe that's on purpose? Whatever, I'll watch judo.

 

[Isabeau]

Table Tennis - lol

ha ha

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

This announcer crying as French rider Pauline Ferrand-Prévot wins the women's mountain bike gold

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

There's always this disparity in how the medal counts are shown across the different websites and apps that I use to keep tabs on the Olympics. NBC shows the medal counts as an overall total. This means that a country with two bronze medals ranks higher than a country with one gold medal because two medals is more than one medal, and the metal only matters when it's needed to break ties. I think they do it this way because ever since the Soviet Union broke up the USA reliably crushes the total summer medal count every time, the only country that (sometimes) even comes close is China. With this ranking the table can be dynamic early on but eventually the USA gets to the top and stays there, and natch this makes American fans happy.

The IOC's ranking though is by weight. Number of golds, then silvers, then bronzes. Being honest, the USA eventually tops this list all the time too (the only time it's been beat post-USSR was by China in Beijing in 2008); but the table stays dynamic for far longer.

ESPN shows the overall table by default, but you can sort the list by golds and get the weighted table that way.

On the weighted table, France is in 4th place with 3 golds. One of those was this record-breaking 400m individual medley swim by Leon Merchand.

South Korea won gold in women's team archery for the tenth time in a row. And it was super dramatic, the winning shot was so close it had to be examined with a magnifying glass. Mexico won the bronze, their first ever archery medal!

But Japan tops the board right now with golds in fencing and judo, and gold AND silver in women's street skate.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Apparently multiple telecommunications cables have been cut in several regions of France, causing communications problems and outages nationwide. As with the train arson, no protest group as yet has taken credit for this, making it likely just an attempt at disruption rather than a protest.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

I'm only interested in sports I can understand That leaves out Rugby, Soccer, Dressage and pretty much anything else that I couldn't train as a sport in Kansas.

However, I definitely am interested in women's basketball (this afternoon!) and gymnastics. I know a good landing when I see one.

Simon Biles took my breath away. Literally. Her vault routine was incredible!

Almost time for some Kaitlyn Clark babee!